Beatles Brush off disappointed fans

Newspaper caption:  It took the Beatles 18 seconds to get from their plane into a limousine adn away from Lunken Airport.  From left, the Beatles are Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon and George Harrison.   Photo by Gordon Baer

Beatles' Brush of Disappoints fan

The scene this time was nothing like the 1964 Beatles arrival, but the frenzy then was aided by their daylight landing.

It doesn't signify any shift in sentiment by their followers in 1964, almost 13,000 attended the Cincinnati Gardens show.  tonight about 18,000 are expected at Crosley Field.

And last night, the best advance planning probably belonged to the two girls who showed up at the baseball park after the stage had been installed near second base.

They chipped away part of the stage timbers for souvenirs, then kissed the infield dirt by the handful, replacing it near the stage steps in hopes the Beatles might walk on their kisses.

That was precisely the atmosphere expected by Tom Dixon, Cincinnati police captain who headed the squad at Lunken and Vernon Manor this morning.  He said his men were prepared for anything, even the remote possibility someone might want to harm the Beatles.

But his main job he said was to protect them from their followers.  Kissers, he indicated are more of a threat than killers.

It must be true, for the limousine parked behind Vernon Manor at 3:30a.m. bore the script, written on the dusty trunk, "Hi Ringo," and "I love you Paul," and the dirty fingers belongs to Charlene Dessaur and Pam Kruger.

Unlike the press, their adoration knows no bounds and they do not insist upon professional conduct.  And that, as they say, is show business.

The Beatles Invade Cincinnati -- a Book Review

Welcome to another installment of "Wednesday Night Reviews."   This week, I have a book called The Beatles Invade Cincinnati 1964 & 1966, written by Scott Belmer (aka Belmo).   This book has been under the radar since it was released this past fall, and if it wasn't for a review in Beatlefan magazine, I wouldn't have been aware of it at all.

It has become more and more popular for authors to write about one specific Beatles concert or one town that the Beatles visited.    I find each one to be very different and very interesting. 

Belmo's The Beatles Invade Cincinnati is really more of a scrapbook than it is a book. He has reproduced just about every newspaper article about the Beatles that appeared in Cincinnati newspapers when the Beatles appeared there in concert.  This is a great resource, as many of the original newspaper articles have yellowed and deteriorated over time, and when you go to the microfilm to read an article, it is often difficult to read.  So, having it all right here in the book to read is great!

I especially enjoyed reading a series of reports from Dale Stevens from 1966 from the Post and Times-Star.  There are a lot of photos in the book, but unfortunately, many of them are very dark, and it is difficult to make out the details.  The photos that are clear are the wonderful 1966 photos from Gordon Baer, and there is a great interview with him in the book.

photo by Gordon Baer

The one thing I feel is missing is the personal fan memories. Yes, there is a section of fan memories and I really enjoyed reading them, but I would have loved to have read more. The fan connections to these concert stops are what really make these types of books special to me. 

All in all it is a fun book to read through.  If you are like me and you are collecting all of the Beatles books about specific concerts, then make sure you add this one to your list!   This would also be a great book for anyone who is or was from Cincinnati, Ohio. 

The link below is the affiliate link to Amazon, where you can purchase this book.  I get a small percentage of anything purchased through this link.  Money made from the Amazon Afflication is used to pay the annual fee to keep this site online.  Thank you for your support.  Sara

https://amzn.to/3uYE691

Teenagers Revel in Madness

photo by Walt Burton

photo by Walt Burton

photo by Walt Burton

photo by Walt Burton

Total Beatlemania:   shoes off and standing on a folding chair trying to see the Beatles

Young Fans Drop Veneer of Civilization for Beatles
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Writer unknown

A screaming, howling "Beatle-cane" struck Cincinnati Gardens Thursday night.   Veteran reporters and policemen were stuck for words to describe the demonstration 14,000 seemingly demented teenagers put on for their idols.  "Unbelievable" was the closest they could come to creating a word picture of the bedlam.

The frenzied mob began its ritualistic dance about 7pm when the doors of the Gardens opened, but the demonstration was only the "eye" of the Liverpool spawned storm.  The worst was yet to come.

The first act on the program, The Bill Mack Combo (sic) stimulated the mood of the crowd, and the second act, the Exciters, sang and danced the Monkey, which whetted the appetites of the adolescents.

The it struck.  The Beatles made their appearance, and the mob exploded into a maelstrom of sound--screaming, stomping, crying, begging, moaning -- every imaginable sound a human is capable of making.

The Beatles played for 25 minutes, but they might as well have been doing a pantomime.  The screaming was so loud for 10 minutes that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Marine Corps Band would have been drowned out.

The youngsters were in the midst of an emotional banzai attack against anything that remotely resembled logic and order.  Some sobbed, clutching their hands to their mouths.  Others waved their hands above their heads and screamed at the top of their lungs.  Some umped up and down on their seats.

The estimated 115 degree temperature melted bouffant hairdos as well as inhibitions.  Well groomed girls who had hoped, without really hoping, that they would attract the eye of a Beatle, began to look like Brillo pads.

A priest turned around in the crowd, looked at a reporter with tears in his eyes and said, "I don't believe it.  Just look at them...at their faces!"

A technician from a television station was trying to measure the sound with an instrument.  He gave up when the instrument recorded its maximum reading and broke.

Pushed past their psychological limits, members of the audience began to "break" too.  Girls started to faint en masse.  Eyes turned cherry red.  Throats became too hoarse to utter even a whisper of adoration.  Shock began to set in, and the merry go round gradually broke down.  The time was 10:07 p.m.

More than 100 police officers, detectives and Pinkerton detectives were assigned to the Gardens for security reasons and to maintain order.  They were helpless to do anything except stare.

The Beatles ran off the Gardens stage before the audience knew what was up, scooted into waiting automobiles and headed toward Lunken airport from which their chartered plane took off for New York shortly after midnight.

Captain Ted Bird of the Cincinnati Police Department said that the young audience "conducted themselves like young ladies and gentlemen.  They screamed, yelled and panted, but there was no other sign of disorder.  They were a credit to Cincinnati."

When it was over, the stage was littered with tattered notes that had been thrown there by fans.  "I love you Ringo."  "Please call me Paul, my number is..."  "I can't go on without you, my dearest darling John."  Most of the notes had been stomped on by the high-heeled Beatle shoes, mute testimony of the undying devotion the British performers felt for their faithful flock.

An English reporter traveling with the Beatles is named George Harrison, too.  He complained to American newsmen that he always is getting his laundry mixed up with Beatle Harrison.  He said the entourage has received no mail from home since it left for the United States. 

And after it struck, the "Beatle-cane" moved on to strike again somewhere else.  And the maintenance men at Cincinnati Gardens began picking up the trash and Beatle buttons.



Tried to Hold 'em Back
Cincinnati police blocked off Kellogg Avenue near Eastern Avenue, at 3:45p.m. and tried to hold down the spectator population as much as possible.  Judging from the crowd at the airport, they didn't succeed.

Four acts accompanied the Beatles on their trip, and departed in a chartered bus.  The Beatles rode in Cadillacs.

As the day wore on, the crowd would anxiously peer at every plane that landed, including the smallest single-engine craft.

A lone pilot stepped from the twin-engine plane and was roundly booed.

Concessionaires prepared for a big night.

They stocked 5200 hot dogs, 5200 buns, 2000 pounds of popcorn, and 20,000 cups for soft drinks for the expected 13,000 spectators.

A television commentator told the Enquirer three girls, 16, 17 and 18 had gone to his studio Thursday morning and said they had hitchhiked by train from Warren, Ohio, to see the Beatles.

They said they hid in a train's washroom, changed at Lima, hiding this time in a boxcar, and arrived in Cincinnati at 7:30a.m.

Cincinnati press

From the collection of Sara Schmidt

From the collection of Sara Schmidt

photo by :  Glenn Hartong

What's Future For Beatles?  Count Money.
By David Bracey
The Cincinnati Enquirer August 28, 1964

What will they do when the wave of Beatlemania subsides?  Beatles John Lennon had the answer Thursday in a Cincinnati press conference.

"Count the money."

The four British singers sat it out in sweltering heat in a private room in Cincinnati Gardens while newspaper, radio and television men fired questions.

The Beatles -- Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison and Lennon, were cheerful and co-operative.  The conference, set up by publicity man, Dino Santangeio, was well organized; a contrast to the bedlam-like scene in Denver, Colorado the night before.

The Beatles answered questions on almost everything, sometime wittily, often seriously and occasionally in a manner that cut cocky questioners down to size.  Never, though did a Beatle crack border on malice.

When a television reporters asked what excuse they had for their collar-length hair, Lennon began:  "Well, it just grows out y'er head..."  McCartney cut in "We don't need an excuse.  You need an excuse."

A newspaperman from Dayton, who said the four ought to be able to handle a crowd of 30,000 without police protection, was told by Lennon, "Well, maybe you could. You're fatter than we are."

Somebody asked the boys what they thought of Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater.  McCartney, baby-faced member of the group and their most ready speaker, admitted that he did not know too much about the American political scene.  But he said he thought  "Mr. Johnson was a better man."

As for British politics, he said he did not know too much about that, either.  Teen-agers stand up and scream piercingly and painfully when the Beatles appear.  Why?  They were asked.

McCartney said none of them knew, but he had heard teenagers pay to go to their shows just to scream.  "A lot of them don't even want to listen," he said, "because they have got the records."

A reporter asked what they thought of the psychiatrist who drew an analogy between the hysteria generated by their beat and the speeches of the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.

Lennon said abruptly "Tell him to shut up.  He's off his head," (mad).

A questioner asked McCartney what he thought of columnist Walter Winchell.   McCartney answered bluntly:  "He said I'm married and I'm not."

"Maybe he wants to marry you,"  Harrison suggested.

Ringo Starr, the group's large-nosed drummer, was asked why he does not sing Ringo, who gave a rare public rendition the night before in Denver, commented, "I can see you haven't bought our lp's."

The four answered a question admitting that the show that comes after the show is sometimes the one to see.  They said they whopped it up until 4 or 5 in the morning depending on how much sleep they need.

What would they have done had they not become Beatles?

"We would have just been bad entertainers," Harrison said.  They all have had only one ambition, to be in show business.

Ringo said he could not see anything to replace their magical power other than a new generation of teenagers with different tastes.

Both sides of the party

I just think this is too cool.  Here are two photos of the Beatles leaving the airport in Cincinnati, Ohio.  You can see in the color photo that someone is  talking to Paul and about to snap a photo of him and I just so happen to own the photograph of Paul that was being taken!   

from the collection of Sara Schmidt

Hang on for Cincinnati!

Rock and Roll Music

These great shots of the guys playing at Crosby Field in Cincinnati, Ohio on August 21, 1966 were found on the "OnlyPaulmcCartney" tumblr.

1966 Tour

This time of year (end of August / beginning of September) makes me always want to look at my collection of Beatles American tour photos. The bottom set are some from 1966 that I have been wanting to see in larger form for many many years. The top photo is a fan photo taken at the L.A. Dogers Stadium concert.